How do consumers perceive food safety risks? – Results from a multi-country survey

Eurasian consumers' food safety beliefs and trust issues in the age of COVID‐19: evidence from an online survey in 15 countries

“…Altogether, EU consumers believe in the safety of their freshly sourced food (2.0) (data not shown), except for Greece, where consumers believe (4.1) that it represents a food safety issue and can be compared only to the situation we have observed in China (4.0) (Table 2). This agrees with the findings of Djekic et al, 26 where European consumers also perceived that fresh food is associated with low levels of food safety risks. When it comes to meat and dairy products, EU consumers disagreed (2.6) that they represent a food safety issue, whereas non-EU (3.3) and Asian (3.2) (data not shown) consumers were uncertain about it.…”

“…A questionnaire containing four parts has been developed to investigate consumers' food safety beliefs and trust issues in the age of COVID-19, as an addition to similar research and questionnaires that we have already used in our previously published investigations. 13,22,26 The first part was about the participants' main demographic characteristics, including country, sex, age, education, size and type of household. The second consisted of six statements regarding their food safety beliefs about meat, dairy and their analogs, freshly sourced food, and different food safety topics, including food fraud, climate changes and genetically modified (GM) food.…”

“…Our results confirm that certification labels support consumers' confidence in food quality/safety. 70,71 Regarding food safety risks, European and Asian consumers believe that they are the least important food actor in the chain, 26 and they associate a low personal risk of food poisoning from home-produced food. 72,73 The general vagueness regarding the food safety trust that the Eurasian consumers in our survey put in almost all food chain actors has been extended to the extent of trust that they put in themselves (3.1).…”

Understanding Italian Consumers’ Perception of Safety in Animal Food Products

“…Eggs are meant as eggs in the shell—other than broken, incubated, or cooked eggs—that are produced by farmed birds and are fit for direct human consumption or for the preparation of egg products [ 33 ]. Generally speaking, eggs are classified as the riskiest group of products in several European countries [ 19 ]. Eggs are a product category not characterized by any technological treatment.…”

“…Thus, the current paper aimed to: (i) Compare the perceived safety of three different product categories with animal origin (milk, eggs, honey) and different frequencies of consumption in the same group of consumers; (ii) Explore the relationship between the safety perception and different technological treatments and commercial information; (iii) Investigate the role of food technology neophobia on consumers’ safety perception. The study focused specifically on animal (not vegetable) products because it is known that animal-originated foods are perceived as riskier than vegetal ones [ 19 ]. Moreover, in animal products, the relationship between an individual’s perception of safety and the probability and severity of health consequences of its consumption is more correlated with willingness to buy (thus it is more strongly related to a behavior), than in vegetable products [ 2 ].…”